Which camcorders let you turn off all the clever stuff and access the raw video?

November 21, 2008 8:30 AM

I'm thinking of buying a camcorder. My requirements are slightly unusual: I would like one that does all the "bells and whistles" stuff (image stabilisation, auto light balance, H.264 compression etc). But I also want to be able to turn off all the clever stuff and access the "raw" video. Any recommendations? Hard disk/SD recording is a must, high definition would be good.
posted by handee to Shopping (6 answers total)

Raw video is massive. According to this calculator a minute of 1280x720 footage is over 2.5 GB. I don't think you really want raw video. What are you trying to do?
posted by kamelhoecker at 9:37 AM on November 21, 2008

I think you might need to buy a RED camera. I'm not aware of any cameras that do what you want them to do for video: DSLRs do this kind of thing, but it's not really done for video, I don't think.
posted by danhon at 9:46 AM on November 21, 2008

You just need a camera with sdi (or hd-sdi) out. It'll be an insane signal, but you can go much cheaper than a red. The Sony ex1 has it, the canon xh-g1, and therea ll in the $6k range.
posted by history is a weapon at 10:44 AM on November 21, 2008

There are some sony (and other cameras) that can capture over HDMI. Black Magic makes an HDMI card.

And yeah, 720 is over 2.52 gb a min...and uncompressed 1080 can be over 6 gb a minute.

Hard disk recoding is a must because of.....?

Any camera that does H264 in real time, in camera, isn't putting out anything else.
posted by filmgeek at 5:56 PM on November 21, 2008

Response by poster: Sorry, not clear in the question. I'm currently used to using DV cameras - by RAW, I mean "uncompressed", or as close to uncompressed as DV cameras give you.
posted by handee at 1:46 AM on November 22, 2008

You want raw uncompressed signal? You use the sdi out, it's available for standard def DV and HD.
From wikipedia's entry on Serial digital interface:
"These standards are used for transmission of uncompressed, unencrypted digital video signals (optionally including embedded audio) within television facilities; they can also be used for packetized data. They are designed for operation over short distances; due to their high bitrates they are inappropriate for long-distance transmission. SDI and HD-SDI are currently only available in professional video equipment"

This was answered. Just google camcorder and sdi.
posted by history is a weapon at 6:27 PM on November 23, 2008